Golden Fields

I've heard so much about how gold a place Andrew McConnell's new restaurant was, with its name, Golden Fields, constantly seen flooding my Twitter news feed over the past couple of weeks.

Golden Fields is different to Cutler & Co or that of Cumulus Inc; it takes on an Asian spin. Similar to how we get served with a bowl of roasted peanuts in Chinese restaurants, here at Golden Fields, we were offered with pumpkin seeds, which I very happily pecked on like a bird.

One of the friendly waitress, rocked up our table to share with us the specials of the day, and also to notify us that mostly everything on the menu is meant to be shared.

It was pretty obvious the menu was mainly ruled by "small eats" and only had a minimal selection of larger main dishes.

I was skeptical as to whether I would like this dish - duckfish, avocado, fresh horseradish & dried sea lettuce - and true to my instincts, I didn't.

"What is this? A hybrid of duck and fish?" I joked. Never in my life have I heard of the duckfish, until tonight. Eddie gave me a smirk and he very kindly googled it up his iPhone and explained to me what a duckfish was. And I went, "Eeeek, so ugly!".

There was an overpowering herb taste that did not quite suit my taste palettes, but Jenna and Eddie certainly enjoyed it.

I love how the fresh sea urchin, flat bread, crisp lardo & escabeche was constructed. The flavours were very well balanced, and I particularly like the mix of textures. It was splendid, but man, was it tiny - gone in two mouthfuls.

The New England lobster roll, hot buttered bun, cold poached crayfish, watercress & kewpie mayo could very well be one of the popular picks. Almost every table had at least one of this lobster roll.

I love how soft the bread roll is in the inside, and slightly crisp on the surface. So long as I get good bread, I'm happy.

Although having said that, I'd wish if the sweetness of my chunk of lobster could stand out a tad bit more.

I had a small mouthful of the shredded cabbage, Moreton Bay bugs, Kampot pepper & mint, but its flavour was one that I didn't quite appreciate. But I'm sure Jenna and Eddie liked it, I mean hey, they cleaned up the plate in a nick of time.

Jenna's little bowl of white onion and conpoy soup with shredded pearl meat - she said to me, "You sure you don't want to try? Not even a tad bit? This is gooooood." Nuff' said?

I really enjoyed this bowl of fried school prawns, crisp pig tail scratchings served with garlic mayonnaise dip.

The prawns were crisp, though could be slightly more crisp but the pork scratchings were fried to perfection - crunchy and full of intense flavour. Goes so very well with a cuppa beer in hand. ;)

This was today's special: Golden Fields fried chicken with heaps more details which I have obviously forgotten, and failed to find online. :P Served with special dip, chilli & mayo. All three of us loved it!

The final main that we had was the slow roast lamb shoulder, cumin seed, salted lemon. Whilst I loved how the lamb was cooked so beautifully well and tender, sad to say, the intense cumin flavour was a tad bit too overpowering for my palette.

Of course, we couldn't say no to dessert. Jenna had the black sesame, lime and yogurt, which I had tasted a little, of course.

We decided that lime just does not go well with black sesame - it was a weird combination.

I enjoyed my peanut butter parfait, salted caramel & soft chocolate, served in a mini bowl. I have to say the parfait was delicious!

The combination - yummeh chocolate mousse, caramel and crushed peanuts - was perfect.

Although Eddie thought it was a tad bit too sweet, it was just right for me. It depends on how far you can go in handling sugar, really. ;)

So, our verdict? Golden Fields - sadly, not as gold as we thought it would be. No doubt, food was pretty good, but service - it was AWFUL.

We were welcomed with very friendly wait staff, offering us small smiles as they take our order. But it all started going down hill when people started to fill in.

When we wanted to order our desserts, the wait staff actually said to us, "Heya, your parking's almost up!" Well, by the sound of his tone, he indirectly meant, "HURRY UP AND GET LOST ALREADY".

Yes, you might be doing well and we were very well aware that it was getting pretty packed with people waiting at the entrance, but that isn't the way you do your business, honey.

And so, if you ask me if I'd return again, I'd mostly likely say no - don't want to get another "ticket" from the officer for parking over time!